The purpose of this trial is to compare the effectiveness, safety and tolerability of TMC278 given at a dose of 25 mg once daily versus efavirenz (EFV) at a dose of 600 mg once daily, when combined with a fixed background regimen consisting of emtricitabine (FTC) + tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), in HIV-1 infected patients who have not yet taken any anti-HIV drugs. The following evaluations will be done: antiviral activity, immunologic changes, and viral geno-/phenotype evolution, relationship of Pharmacokinetics (PK) and PK/Pharmacodynamics, medical resource utilization and treatment adherence.

Virological response is defined as confirmed plasma viral load < 50 HIV-1 (RNA) copies/mL at Week 48. The TLOVR algorithm was used to derive response. Response needed to be confirmed at 2 consecutive visits and subjects who permanently discontinued were considered nonresponders after discontinuation. Resuppression after confirmed virologic failure was considered as failure. Virologic Failure includes subjects who were rebounder (confirmed viral load >= 50 copies/mL after being responder) or who were never suppressed (no confirmed viral load <50 copies/mL)

The analysis is based on the last observed viral load (VL) data within the Week 48 window. Virologic response is defined as a VL<50 copies/mL (observed case). Missing VL was considered as non-response. Virologic Failure includes subjects who had VL>=50 copies/mL in the Wk48 window, subjects who discontinued early due to lack or loss of efficacy, subjects who discontinued for reasons other than an adverse event, death or lack or loss of efficacy and at the time of discontinuation had a VL>=50 copies/mL, and subjects who had a switch in background regimen that was not permitted by the protocol.

Over the past decade, anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) drugs have been introduced sequentially for use in the clinic. Currently, patients are routinely being treated with 3 or 4 drug combinations including nucleoside/tide analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs/NtRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), and/or fusion inhibitors. New potent antiretroviral (ARV) compounds that work in people whose HIV-1 virus is resistant to available drugs are urgently needed. This is a Phase III, randomized (study medication is assigned by chance), double-blind (neither the study physician nor the patient knows the name of the study assigned medication), double-dummy, active-controlled trial to compare the effectiveness, safety, and ability to tolerate TMC278 versus efavirenz (EFV). The study will last for 104 weeks which includes a screening period of 4 weeks, a 96-week treatment period, followed by a 4 week follow-up period. Patients will be randomly assigned to TMC278 or to efavirenz, either of these treatments will be in combination with two other anti-HIV drugs (2 NRTIs: emtricitabine (FTC) + tenofovir (TDF)). TDF/FTC will be administered as a fixed dose combination if available. The hypothesis to be provided in this study is that the investigational drug TMC278 will perform just like efavirenz (EFV) in terms of antiviral effectiveness (i.e., suppressing of the plasma viral load to a level < 50 HIV-1 RNA (ribonucleic acid) copies/mL) in ARV-naïve HIV-infected patients. During the trial, patients' health will be monitored by physical examination, interview to assess health and well being, and laboratory testing on blood and urine samples. Experimental Group: One tablet of TMC278 25 mg once daily plus one tablet of placebo once daily that looks just like efavirenz (EFV) plus tenofovir/emtricitabine; Control Group: One tablet of Placebo once daily that looks just like TMC278 plus EFV 600 mg once daily plus tenofovir/emtricitabine.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and older

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Patient with documented HIV-1 infection

Patient has never been treated with a therapeutic HIV vaccine or an ARV drug prior to screening

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00540449